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A month after two USC graduate students died in a shooting near the campus, their parents have sued the private university. Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot and killed in a car parked on a street that campus security didn’t patrol.

Within hours of the incident, USC officials and Chinese consular staff worked to speed their parents' travel to the United States and ensure the return of the students’ remains to China. But in a wrongful death lawsuit, the parents of the electrical engineering grad students contend that USC could have done more.

This lawsuit indicates how the unsolved homicide affects the school’s reputation in China, its largest source of international students. It also notes that the school near downtown Los Angeles actively solicits international students who pay substantial tuition, and that its website emphasizes its safe environment.

In response, an attorney for USC expressed sympathy for the students' families but called the lawsuit baseless. The lawsuit, filed in L.A. Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages.